Human Rights Day 2014

December 10th is recognized as Human Rights Day as it was on this day in 1948 that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the United Nations.

During this time, Amnesty International members and supporters participate in a massive letter writing event called “Write for Rights”. Last year 2.3 MILLION letters were sent to various governments asking that human rights are respected. There are thousands of letter writing events across the globe. Locally, the Regina Community Amnesty Group is hosting a Write for Rights evening at the Artful Dodger on Wednesday, December 10th from 5pm to 9pm.

Personally, I will write my 460th letter by year’s end in my twelve years as an Amnesty member. I will reach the 500 letter milestone late next year! Here is data on the distribution of my letters. A few good news stories from 2014:

On March 4th, Jabeur Mejri was released from a Tunisian prison. Mejri’s case was featured in last year’s Write for Rights campaign.

On June 5th, Chinese officials freed Dhondup Wangchen.

In October, Angel Amilcar Colon Quevedo was granted freedom from jail in Mexico.

Anwar Ismail and Khaled al-Jnunaidi were released from a Yemeni prison in November.

Musa Sheriff and Sainey M.K. Marenah were released November 14th in The Gambia.

Please take fifteen minutes of your time to write a letter! For more information and appeal letters please visit Amnesty Canada.